Combination lock



Sept. 16 1924.

' '1,508,948 G. A. ANDERSON COMBINATION LOCK Filed July 10. 1923 3 Sheets-8h96?. 1

mgmllll /iM A TTUHNEYS Sept. 1,6. 1924. 1,508,948

. G. A. ANDERSON COMBINATION LOCK Filed July l0. 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Z9 56 48 2e 57 /@f\d ZZ" 161. @9 Il Sept. 16 1924,

' G. A. ANDERSON COMBINATION LocK Filed July l0 1923 3 Sheet$-5he` 5 Patented Sept. lb, i924.

GSTAVE ARNOLD ANDERSN, OF NEW YORK7 N. Y.l

COMBI-NATION LOCK.

Application led July l0,

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, Gnsrivn A. ANDnRsoN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of N ew York, borough of Bronx, in the county of Bronx and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Combination Lock, of which the following is a full, ciear, and enact description.

This invention relates to a combination lock, and has for an object the provision of a lock which from the outside of a door can only be opened by a person knowing the combination.

Another object concerns the provision of a lock having a combination which when operated properly will permit the bolt to be retractl', this mechanism arranged in a casing which on the outside of the door presents no means for removing the casing from the door. such as screws.

A further object concerns the provision of means in a locking' device whereby a peiL son on the inside of the door can open the door by retracting the bolt. whether he knows the combination or not providing he knows how tomanipulate a particular latch disposed on the inner side of the door.

The invention is illustrated in the drawings, of which v Figure l is a sideelevation of the lock applied toa door showing a part of the casing broken away, this view being taken from the outside of the door;

Fig. 2 isa section taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. l 5

Fig. 3 is a side elevation showing the lock. attached to a door with -a portion of the casing broken away, this view being from the inside ofthe door;

Fig. i is a section taken on the line 4 4 of Fig, 2;

Fig.` 5 is an end elevation of the door with f the lock in place;

Fig. 6 is a section taken on the line 66 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 is a detail section taken through the shaft of one of the worm gears illustrating the manner in which it is latched;

Fig. 8 is a section showing the relation of the bolt shaft, the key gears and the worm when the gears have been moved to their alined position with respect to the shaft;

Fig. 9 is a section taken through the lock casing showing a form of spring bolt used in ka modification;

Fig.y l0 is a side elevation of the casing 1923. Serial No. 859,717.

partly broken away, showing a modified form of the construction;

Fig. ll is a section taken on the line.

ll-l of Fig. l0; and Fig. l2 is a detail of a manually operated gear used in a modification.

struction and arrangement of the parts and in the character of the materials used may be adopted without departing from the spirit of the invention.

This invention as shown in the'drawings in a gen-eral sense includes a slidable bolt having a groove therein. Around this bolt are disposed a plurality of gears having inwardly projecting pins associated therewith rotatable in transverse grooves in the bolt and adapted when operated by' suitable mechanism, such as manually operable worin gears, to alinethe pins on the gears with respect to the longitudinal groove in the bolt, so that in this position of the gears the bolt can be moved longitudinally with respect to the gears. However, whenever the gears are not so disposed as to aline their pins or keys with respect to the longitudinal groove in the bolt, the bolt cannot be mov-ed, especially from the outside of the door. lilith respect to the inside of the door, the bolt can be moved by releasing a vmanually operable latch member. This latch mem,- ber is connected to a slidable bar which is tiled in any `suitable manner vto the gears to hold them in a fixed position with respect to the vlongitudinal movement until the latch member is released. Therefore, even from the inside of the door, the bolt cannot be operated longitudinally without either depressing the latch member or Setting the combination. From a careful consideration of the description and claims hereinafter set forth. in connection with the drawings, otherl features of the invention will appear.

The preferred form of the invention includes a. lock casing formed 1n two pieces,A

one of which 'is formed with an outside face plate l() and projecting side plates l1 and l2. As shown in the drawings in Fig. l,-the` base plate l() entends beyond the edges of the slot cut in the door. The other piece of the casingis a rear or inside platel", which can Vbe screwed to the inner ends' of the side walls ll and l'2and, likewise', is larger in verse grooves 16, 17 and 18, are three gears 19, 2O and 21. Each of these gears is provided with an inwardly projecting pin or key 21a see Fig. 6), the inner end ot which is adapted to extend into the transverse Igroove with which that particular gear is associated, and when the gear is rotated to be alined with the longitudinal groove 15 ot the bolt. Each oit the gears is also provided with a laterally extending hub portion 22 around which a 'ring element 23 is disposed, and on each ring element is mounted a set screw or detent member 24 which in its rotation is adapted to engage with its respective worm gear. These worm gears are lnumbered 25, 26 and 27 g they mesh with the above-mentioned gears, are mounted on shafts 28, 29 and 30 extending through the front and rear plates oit the casing, and on their outer ends are provided with knurled knobs such as 31. On the rear inner tace ot the casing there are provided in the side plates 11 and 12 slots 32 and 33 (see Fig. 3) to receive the ends oit a slidable bar 34, which I show designated as the latch bar. The outer end ot this latch bar is provided with teeth 35 with which a pinion 36 meshes. This pinion is mounted within the casing on a pinion shaft 37 and is held in a ttorv 'ard position at all times against the rear plate 113 by a spring 38 which surrounds the inner end of the pinion shaitt. The outer end of this pinion shaft 37 is provided with a` thumbpiece or knob The outer tace of the pinion is provided with a latch pin -40 adapted in the normal position ot the pinion 36 to extend into an aperture 41 formed in the plate 13 adjacent the shaft 37. The slidable bar 34, which I call the latch bar,'is provided with inwardly extending arms, such as 42 and 43 (see Figs. 1 and 2/)1 These arms extend along' the side of the outer gears of the series ot gears 19, 2O and 21 to conline the movement ot' said gears within the casing. In other words, it will be observed that since the series ot gears, which I may designate the pinion gears, are confined between the latch arms 42 and 43, and since these latch arms are mounted on the latch bar 84, and since the latch bar meshes with the latch'pinion 36, and since the latch pinion has a latch pin 4() which in the normal position of the pinion projects nauseas into the hole in the rear plate, this entire series ot elements is prohibited from having any movement until some one presses on the knob 39 against the act-ion oit the spring 38 and thereby moves the pinion inwardly so that the latch pin 40 will be removed from the aperture 41 in the rear plate 13. 1n this event, then the slidahle bar can be moved either by turning the thumb nut 39 or by gripping the knob 44 disposed on the inner tace oi the lock and connected to a shatt 45 extending through the holt 14 and through both the tront plate 10 and the rear plate 13, this shaft. having on its 'front end thumb knob 46.

rlibe position of the combination gears when the pins are alined with. the longitudinal groove in the bolt 14 l call the Zero position, and in this Zero position it is eas'- ily understood that the plate can be slid backward and forward by the manipulation oit the knobs 44 and 46 trom either side oit the casing. On the other hand, when the gears are not in the zero position it will he observed that the bolt cannot be moved e1;- cept to move it forwardly, because when the bolt is shot to its extreme torward position, shown in Figs. 1 and 2, then the gears which have been moved therewith necessarily, bel canse they are not in their zero position. have by reason ot their engagement wit-h tl e arms 42 and 43 caused the movement ot the latch bar 34 and the rotation ot the pinion Theaotation oit this latch pinion 36 has caused the movement ot the pin 40 around to the position shown in 1, 2 and 3, where it is in alinement with the aperture 41 in the rear plate 18; and at the instant this pin is thus alined with this aperture the spring 38 vill shoot the pinion torward to torce the pin into the aperture. lt will, therefore, be seen that the bolt., after this engagement has occurred between the latch pin and the rear plate, cannot be moved backward until the disengagement ot these `parte is eiitected or until the worin gears have been operated to lt the pins on the pinion gear to Zero pesil` tion. This setting of the pinion gears, ot course, can occur from either the inside or the outside, but in view ot the tact that the bolt can he moved very easily from the inside hy depressing the latch member.` it is inv-ariablyv only trom the outside that the combination mechanism is used to unlock the door.

lt will be observed that the shatts 2S, 29 and 3() ot the worm gear., as illustrated in 7, are provided with slots or grooves such as 47 on opposite sides, and that spring members 48 having inwardly projecting tits or ribs 49 are adapted to engage therewith. This i tor the purpose ot temporarily latching the worm gear shafts from halt revolution, so that the click made by the engagement and disengagement ofthese `)arts can be heard and felt and so that the person operating the thumb lrnobsfrom either side of the casing will be able to tell the extent to which the knobs have been moved.

It is. of course. understood that the shaft 45 extending through the bolt and the front and rear plates passes through the front and rear plates through slots 50 and 5l formed the-rein. lt is also to be` observed that the rings or sleeves rsuch as 2S formed on the.

hubs 22 of. the pinion gears can be adjusted by means of the set screws 24 so that. these set screws can malte contact with 'the worm gears at a later or earlier instant of time and thereby vary the combination.

lt is understood that in order to manipulate the combination the worm gears are moved as far as possible in any one direction and then the combination is operated by moving' the respective gears each the required number of turns or half turns delen mined until the pins are alined with the grooves.

is shown in Fig. 9, I have provided a spring within the casing' back of the innermost combination gear, which will tend to hold this `rear and the other `gears in the series 'forward at all times, the bolt having a sloping face characteristic of spring bolts so that the door can be shut and the bolt will retract a sufficient amount against the action of the spring to permit this shutting; of the door but will immediately be. moved baclr to the normal position again bythe spring.

further modification of the construction is shown in Figs. 10, il and 12, in which the combination 2ojears are operated by pawl members such as mounted on shafts 54 held in one normal position by a spring' 55 and movable in the opposite direction by thumb buttons 56. the pawls engaging vwith the teeth of the gears. such as 57, to operate them and aligning their pins with respect to the groove in they bolt shaft. It will be seen.y especially with respect to Figs. l0 and l1, that there are a set of these buttons for each side of the casing but that regardless of which set is operated the coinbination gears can only be moved in one direction thereby. The lgears are reset to their normal position by means. of large disks such as 58 which are provided on their inner edQe-s with teeth 59 adapting them to be slid over the respective combination gears. The outer edges of these disks 5S are knurled as at 60 (see Fig. l0).y and the diameters of these disks are of a size sufficient to permit just a slight portion thereof vto extend through the front and rear plates of the casing` so that they can be engaged by the hand of the operator to move the gears in'either direction. The depressible buttons 56 are so disposed that by depress ing them the pawl members can be moved.

only a definite distance so that when de pressed any button will insure the movement of the combination gears which it enn gages only a determined and definite distance.

lt will thus be seen that 1 have provided a relatively simple mechanism for placing the locking' and unlocking of a` bolt in a door under the domination of a combination mechanism which can be vvery easily and effectively operated from either side of the door but the operation of which can be eliminated by a person on the. inside of the door merely by the depression of a simple latch member, whereupon the operation l.of

the combination mechanism is rendered unnecessary and the bolt can be withdrawn by direct movement.

lVhat l claim is l. A. lock construction which includes a sidable bolt having" a. longitudinal groove therein and a plurality of -transverse grooves, a plurality of gears embracing said bolt and having inwardly projecting pineI thereon adapted to extend into said grooves a plurality of manually operable gears engaging; with the first-mentioned gears for rotating said first-mentioned gears whereby the pins thereon can be: brought into ialinement with the longitudinal groove.. a manually engageable element connected to the. bolt permittingits movement forward or bac-lr with respect to said ,gears7 when the alinement is effected, a lat-ch bar associated with and connected to the said lfirst-mentioned gears7 a latch element operated by the movement of the bar. and means on said latch element to latch with the casing on one side v thereof when the bar is moved to adefinite position, said latchinzc; action between the elements and the casing` occurring when the .first-mentioned gears are moved forward by the movement forward of the bolt when the pins on said gears are not in alinement with the longitudinal groove.

EZ. A lock construction which includes a slidable bolt having,` longitudinal and transverse peripheral grooves therein, a plnrality of gears surrounding` said bolt and having inwardlyv projecting' prins adapted normally to lie in the. transverse grooves. means for moving' the bolt. and the gears forward when the gears are in their normal position, a latch bar eng'aceable with said gears, a latch element on said bar7 and means for enganjingsaid latch element when the gears have been moved to their extreme forward position to restrain the bolt and the gears from rearward movement.

3. A loclrc'onstruction which includes a slidable bolt having longitudinal transverse peripheral grooves therein. a plurality of gears surrounding; said bolt and having inwardly projectingv pins adapted normally to lie ini the transverse grooves,

and

enga@ing said latch elen'ient, when the gears have been moved to their etti'e'ne torward position to resti "n the holt and the Oll'l lrGtl'Tll'fi lll( QT? f'lllui mftlllllil 'fhle means ,tor rota-ting' the gears from A:her sid et the e lt to more the pins on id in alinenient with the longitudinal groove, whereby the holt may he Withdrawn independertlj,v of the retractii'in ol the gears.

il. i lock Construction which includes a slidahle holt having` longitudinal and trans Verse peripheral grooves therein, a plu.- rality ot gears surrounding said holt and haw ing inwardly projecting` pins adapted normally to lie in the transverse grooves, means for moving the holt and the gears 'forward when the gears are in th eir neri/nal position a latch har engageahle with said gears, latch element on saidil har, means it r engaginftgv said latch element when the gears have been inoved to their extreme forward position to restrain the holt and the gears from rearward movement, and means on one side of said gears tor niannally releasing); the latch so that the holt and Gears ina*- he retraeted together.

5. A look construct-ion Whieh includes a slidahle holt having longitudinal and transverse peripheral. groores therein, a plu; rality of gears surrounding said holt and having; inwardly projecting' pins adapted normally to lie in the transverse groei'ee1 means tor moving; the holt and the reje/frcs tor Ward when the gears are in their normal 9osi'tion, a latch har engageahle with said gears, a latch element on said harq means tor engaging said latch element i aen they gears have heen moved to their extreme 'toi'- Ward position to rest-rain the holt and the and inaniialli7 ooerahle means on one side ot the holt 'tor releasin the latch, Wherehy the holt and gears can be retracted independ ently of the means tor aligning said pin.

USTAVE ARNOLD ANDERSON. 

